Cohesity completes acquisition of Veritas data protection unit

Cohesity has announced the completion of its acquisition of Veritas' enterprise data protection business, positioning itself as the world's largest data protection software provider with a valuation exceeding $7 billion.

The acquisition, which was initially announced earlier this year, marks a significant milestone for Cohesity, expanding its customer base to serve over 12,000 customers, including more than 85 of the Fortune 100 companies and nearly 70% of the Global 500. The company now protects hundreds of exabytes of data globally.

Sanjay Poonen, Chief Executive Officer and President of Cohesity, commented on the acquisition, stating, "Cohesity and Veritas are both innovative leaders in securing data, and that's why this business combination is a win for the thousands of global organisations who rely on our platforms. Together, we're enhancing how businesses build resilience against rising cyber threats while enabling them to uncover actionable insights from their data. This collaboration underscores our focus on profitable growth to drive innovation, consolidate our leadership in the market, and deliver unparalleled value to our customers and partners. We're excited about the possibilities and transformative impact this combination unlocks for those we serve."

The completion of this transaction makes Cohesity the fastest data protection company to surpass $1 billion in revenue within 11 years. On a pro forma adjusted basis for the fiscal year ending July 2024, the combined entity reported revenue exceeding $1.7 billion, with annual recurring revenue reaching $1.5 billion and an adjusted cash EBITDA margin of 28%.

Poonen further highlighted the strategic advantages of the acquisition, "This is a major milestone in the 11-year history of Cohesity, whose mission is to protect, secure, and provide insights into the world's data. By combining Cohesity's scale-out architecture and strong Generative AI and security capabilities with Veritas' broad workload support and extensive global footprint, our customers and partners stand to gain more value from their data than ever. As promised, we will honour our 'no customer left behind' commitment, supporting existing products from both companies for years to come. As we begin this new chapter, we are committed to driving industry-leading cyber resilience innovations to ensure we are the world's preeminent choice for data security with differentiated AI capabilities."

Jensen Huang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NVIDIA, extended his congratulations, remarking, "We want to congratulate Cohesity on completing their Veritas acquisition. NVIDIA is excited to partner with Cohesity as they build their GenAI products on top of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise. Cohesity is backing up and protecting the world's data – a goldmine of business value that customers can unlock with GenAI."

Daniel Newman, Chief Executive Officer of The Futurum Group, provided his perspective on the acquisition's implications, stating, "Bringing together Cohesity and Veritas' data protection business – the largest deal in the data protection space to date – addresses the growing need in the market to go beyond backing up and recovering data to handle issues around data security and insights for more robust cyber resilience. Cohesity now has the largest workload support with world-class security and insight capabilities, a large presence, and a massive joint ecosystem of service providers, VARs, SI partners, and OEMs."

Newman said, "Sitting in a unique position at the junction of multi-cloud, security, and AI, Cohesity is on an ambitious growth trajectory, with an experienced leader in Sanjay at the helm. We believe the company will be a key player as they expand beyond data protection, helping global CIOs exploit the potential for AI and turn organisational data into a competitive advantage."

The combined company will offer industry-leading innovation and capabilities, with a portfolio that includes cloud-scale and AI-powered data security and management, Generative AI-driven insights, and a comprehensive multi-cloud data protection collection.

Cohesity has expressed a commitment to continued investment in and support for all products and services from both companies, ensuring customer investments are protected and developed further.

With a robust Net Promoter Score and a customer success organisation that operates globally, Cohesity aims to provide consistent and positive support experiences for its clients. Additionally, the company highlights its patent-pending AI capabilities that are first-to-market, offering substantial benefits in data management, protection, and resilience.

The merged entity targets a total addressable market exceeding $40 billion, positioning itself to deploy new solutions and drive customer adoption across the fast-growing data security and management segment.